This blog was created for Niles Animal Hospital & Bird Medical Center by Peter S. Sakas DVM in an effort to provide information & discussion about animal related issues. It may move into some eccentric directions on occasion if the mood strikes me as I get more comfortable in this form of communication. I am open to suggestions & comments about the blog. Also view our hospital website www.nilesanimalhospital.com or Facebook page Niles Animal Hospital and Bird Medical Center.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Americans are having dogs instead of babies

Americans are having dogs instead of babies

What you get when you cross a Shih Tzu with a someone who doesn't have kids yet.
Reuters/Phil Noble

The fewer babies Americans give birth to, the more small dogs they seem to buy.

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Birth
rates in the US have fallen from nearly 70 per 1,000 women in 2007, to
under 63 last year—a 10% tumble. American women birthed almost 400,000
fewer little humans in 2013 than they did six years before. The drop-off
has come exclusively among 15- to 29-year-olds. This chart, taken from a recent report by the US Department of Health (pdf), does a pretty decent job of showing how much of the growing disinterest in having babies is due to younger women:

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Meanwhile,
the ownership of small dogs—that is, pets weighing no more than 20
pounds (9 kilograms)—is doing just the opposite. Americans have been
buying more and more small dogs each year since 1999. The population of
little canines more than doubled in the US over that period, and is only
projected to continue upwards, according to data from market research
firm Euromonitor.

And rightly so. The number of small dogs has grown so fast that they are now the most popular kind nationwide.

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It
could just be a coincidence that Americans are birthing fewer babies at
the same time as they’re buying a lot more little dogs. But there’s
pretty good reason to believe it isn’t, Damian Shore, an analyst at
market-research firm Euromonitor, told Quartz. “There’s definitely some
replacement happening there,” he said.

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One
telling sign that the two are not entirely unrelated is that the same
age groups that are forgoing motherhood are leading the small dog
charge. “Women are not only having fewer children, but are also getting
married later. There are more single and unmarried women in their late
20s and early 30s, which also happens to be the demographic that buys
the most small dogs,” Shore said.

Of
course, small dog ownership isn’t rising just because people want kid
substitutes. Fashion trends aside, small dogs are also emblematic of a
national migration to cities, where big dogs are harder to keep. Nearly
80% of Americans live in urban areas. “Smaller homes and apartments are
also helping drive the growing popularity of smaller dogs,” Shore said.

But
the national trend towards later motherhood is certainly playing its
part. And those who treat their pooches and pugs like babies may be on
to something. A study last year found that dogs form bonds of dependency
with their owners not unlike the ones babies form with their parents.